For subscribers
Forget gold. Aluminium is the real metal of the moment
For the last 25 years, Beijing has single-handedly supplied the world’s incremental demand for the metal.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Planes and iPhones, window frames and soda cans, electric cars and appliances all depend on aluminium.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Javier Blas
Follow topic:
It lacks the effervescence of copper and the geopolitical allure of rare earths – yet aluminium is the metal of the moment.
Key to modern life and everywhere in the global economy, it is entering a make-or-break phase: Either the world is sleepwalking into a supply crisis or further into the hands of China. Or, more worryingly, both.
